Knights bring home fourth-place trophy

A quick look at Fieldcrest's third-place match with Dee-Mack. More in Tuesday's Daily Leader

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By Erich Murphy

Pontiac Daily Leader - Pontiac, IL

By Erich Murphy

Posted Nov. 16, 2013 at 1:50 PM

By Erich Murphy
Posted Nov. 16, 2013 at 1:50 PM

The third time was far from charming for Fieldcrest. The Knights took it on the chin one final meeting with Dee-Mack Saturday afternoon. This time it was for third place in Class 2A at the state volleyball finals.

The Chiefs, who survived a three-set matchup with the Knights in the Heart of Illinois Conference final a few weeks ago, overwhelmed their league rival 25-14, 25-10 at Redbird Arena.

Serving was the key for Dee-Mack (37-2). The Chiefs recorded 15 aces in the match.

When the Knights (33-6-1) did receive serve, there were issues with passing. Collectively, this put Fieldcrest in a bind.

“It all came down to serving. If you can’t pass you can’t run your offense,” FHS head coach Cathy Sanders said. “They just took us right out of our game. That’s why we struggled.”

Lauren Anderson recorded a kill for a sideout that tied the first set at 3-3. Beth Mickna stepped to the service line for the Chiefs and rattled off four straight points, with the first ace of the match recorded to make it 7-3.

Anderson got the ball the next time Dee-Mack served. A long attack by the Knights pushed the margin to 10-6 and led to Anderson’s first of four consecutive ace serves. The final two sandwiched a Fieldcrest timeout.

“Our serving has been a weapon for us all year,” Dee-Mack head coach Brandon Mueller said. “All year we’ve kept teams out of (their) system. We did that today.”

The Chiefs had found a groove. They were able to pretty much end the match in the second set when Kyleigh Block recorded a pair of aces to kick off a six-point service run.

“We came out on fire and played Dee-Mack volleyball,” Mueller said. “It was fun to see the girls smiling and enjoying the game of volleyball.”

“For us, it was a good experience. It’s still all good,” Sanders said. “I’m pretty proud of the girls and what they accomplished this season. Right now it stings a little bit, these girls accomplished a lot this season.”

Look in Tuesday’s Daily Leader for more in-depth coverage of the Knights.